A whistleblower at a local authority says she has witnessed schools excluding children for having special educational needs or a disability they are unable to meet. In some cases, she says, teachers have talked about a "cull" being planned.
It seemed like a normal school day when Belinda went to pick up her seven-year-old daughter.
But when she arrived at Melissa's school, a teaching assistant said her daughter was in "huge distress", pulling things off the walls - and they needed to have a "hard conversation".
"I had no idea what was coming and could still hear that Melissa was distressed. The head said it was a permanent exclusion and she couldn't come back," Belinda said.
Similar cases are happening in schools elsewhere. Caroline, not her real name, holds a senior role in the education team at a local authority in England.
"Any child that looks slightly like they're going to be a problem, they're excluding them. The system's falling apart," she says.
